CiteScore: 3.08ℹ
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Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): 1.221ℹSource Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP):2015: 1.221SNIP measures contextual citation impact by weighting citations based on the total number of citations in a subject field.

SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): 1.907ℹSCImago Journal Rank (SJR):2015: 1.907SJR is a prestige metric based on the idea that not all citations are the same. SJR uses a similar algorithm as the Google page rank; it provides a quantitative and a qualitative measure of the journal’s impact.

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Degrees of Sociality in Ants

Why sociality evolves is a central question in animal behaviour, one with obvious relevance to our own predicaments. Comparative studies of sociality often focus on the social insects, the ants, bees and wasps, because this group exhibits a great range of sociality, from some of the most highly social of all species to some fairly ordinary ones. One goal of these comparative studies is to relate the degree of sociality to environmental factors in order to determine which aspects of the environment select for increased sociality. A difficulty is that different species, by their nature, almost always differ simultaneously in a great many features, including aspects of their history as well as of current environment, thus complicating the task of identifying environmental factors of crucial importance. This difficulty would be lessened if variation in sociality could be identified and analysed within species. Thus it is of great interest that a paper in this issue , by Ken R. Helms and Sara Helms Cahan of the University of Vermont, describes a substantial range of variation in the social system of a single species of desert seed-harvester ant, Messor pergandei.

Figure. Two cofoundress queens of the desert ant Messor pergandei interact aggressively as their workers tend the brood. These are queens from a site where lethal fighting occurs among queens; in other areas queens coexist peacefully. Photo: Ken R. Helms.

Click here to view the full editorial by Ana Sendova-Franks (Executive Editor).